Summary: Getting an AI startup to scale for an IPO is currently elusive. Several different strategies are being discussed around the industry and here we talk about the horizontal strategy and the increasingly favored vertical strategy. While AI is most certainly destined to be the next great general purpose technology, on a par with the steam engine, the automobile, and electrification, there just aren't any examples of new AI-first companies that look like they'll grow that big. OK, in the 80s it took a long time for the'computer age' to show up in the financial statistics and maybe we're at the same place. Still, a bunch of people, especially VCs are wondering how to grow an AI company all the way to IPO.

Summary: Now that we've detailed the four main AI-first strategies: Data Dominance, Vertical, Horizontal, and Systems of Intelligence, it's time to pick. Here we provide side-by-side comparison and our opinion on the winner(s) for your own AI-first startup. In our last several articles we've taken a tour of the four major strategies for creating a successful AI-first company. So which one is best? Since we're going to offer a side-by-side comparison you may want to refer first to the foundation articles on the four strategies: There is wide agreement that controlling a unique data set is the most effective way to create a defensible moat.

Summary: The fourth and final AI strategy we'll review is Systems of Intelligence (SOI). This is getting nearly as much attention as the Vertical strategy we previously reviewed. It's appealing because it seems to offer the financial advantages of a Horizontal strategy but its ability to create a defensible moat requires some fine tuning. In the last several articles we've been looking at different strategies for successful AI companies. We described Data Dominance, and the Vertical and Horizontal strategies.